Execut ive Summary

Black  Friday  is  quite  simply  the  biggest  day  of  the  year  for  Currys  PC  World,  in  fact  it  has  rapidly  become  the  principle  trading  day  in  most  retailers  calendar.  This  brings  with  it  both  opportunities  and  challenges.    

The  opportunity  and  objective  for  Dixons  was  clear;  we  needed  to  prompt  action  and  drive  short  term  response.  In  order  to  do  this,  we  had  to  capitalise  on  this  huge  consumer  interest  to  drive  the  largest  single  days’  worth  of  sales  in  the  year.  The  challenge  was  delivering  on  this  in  the  face  of  shared  ambitions  with  our  core  competitors.    

Therefore,  we  needed  to  cut  through  the  clutter  and  shout  the  loudest;  getting  lost  within  our  competitors  communications  wasn’t  an  option.  We  needed  consumers  to  view  CPCW  as  the  number  one  retail  destination.  Newsbrands  gave  us  the  platform  to  do  this  and  provided  a  channel  we  know  is  tried  and  tested  from  an  ROI  point  of  view.  Utilising  Newsbrands  alongside  other  channels,  we  created  the  CPCW  Black  Friday  Roadblock.    

 

Background & Objective

Black  Friday  has  had  a  huge  impact  on  consumer  mind-­‐set  and  purchase  habits  since  it  came  to  prominence  in  the  US  and  more  recently  in  the  UK.  This  has  meant  historical  sales  trends  have  been  impacted  upon  as  consumers  focus  their  attention  on  this  single  day,  pulling  forward  typical  sales  spikes  in  the  run  up  to  Christmas.      

The  level  of  growth  of  BF  as  a  fully  formed  consumer  facing  proposition  was  evident  in  the  sheer  volume  of  sales  in  2015  –  Google  estimated  this  to  be  upwards  of  £1.1bn  through  online  sales  alone  (this  was  up  36%  on  the  previous  year).  

This  huge  groundswell  of  consumer  interest  and  media  attention  has  therefore  provided  a  massive  opportunity  for  retailers.  The  communications  objective  for  CPCW  was  to  ensure  that  we  dominated  key  broadcast  and  digital  channels,  drive  the  highest  SOV  amongst  our  core  competitor  set  and  prompt  action.  The  business  objective  attached  to  this  was  clear;  short  term  sales.    

To  deliver  on  this  and  alleviate  some  of  the  pressure  on  Black  Friday  alone,  we  constructed  a  comms  plan  which  balanced  out  the  event  across  a  longer  period  -­‐  running  in  the  week  leading  up  to  and  through  to  the  following  Monday  (Cyber  Monday).    

Newsbrands  were  instrumental  in  allowing  us  to  deliver  a  consistent  presence  across  this  period  to  position  CPCW  at  the  front  of  consumers’  minds,  ‘warming  up’  the  market  ahead  of  the  main  event  on  the  Friday.  A  sense  of  immediacy  through  print  was  key  to  illicit  short  term  reaction;  key  national  press  titles  ensured  we  could  deliver  on  this,  at  scale,  and  in  conjunction  with  other  channels.    

 

Insight

There  were  some  key  insights  that  we  took  into  planning  for  the  2016  campaign:    

• We  had  to  utilise  multiple  touch  points  in  unison  to  truly  cut  through  and  the  halo  effect  this  generates  was  an  important  factor  at  planning  stage.  For  example,  we  knew  from  the  Newsbrands  ROI  Retail  study  that  print  newsbrands  make  TV  spend  work  twice  as  hard,  as  well  as  boosting  radio  revenue  by  up  to  10  times.    

• The  same  research  also  highlighted  the  sweet  spot  investment  percentage  for  Newsbrands  as  part  of  the  overall  media  spend  as  around  20%  -­‐  30%.  This  insight  (alongside  Gain  Theory’s  econometric  work)  helped  guide  decisions  around  the  most  effective  spend  split  by  channel.      

• Our  competitor  monitoring  through  Nielsen,  Ebiquity  and  general  market  trends  indicated  that  competitor  spend  was  likely  to  increase  YoY.  We  couldn’t  afford  to  stand-­‐still  and  risk  our  SOV  being  diluted  in  this  context,  dominant  share  was  a  must  

• Black  Friday  was  no  longer  a  new  concept.  Consumers  are  now  well  trained  on  seeking  out  the  best  deals  and  search  trends  from  Google  showed  that  this  was  now  more  likely  to  be  done  at  an  individual  product  level  (rather  than  generic  “Black  Friday  deals”)  

• CPCW  brand  tracking  (conducted  by  Millward  Brown)  from  BF  in  2015  showed  that  our  press  activity  had  weaker  persuasion  and  credibility  than  our  standard  campaigns  running  throughout  the  year.  Newsbrands  continue  to  provide  us  with  platforms  that  command  a  sense  of  trust  from  its  readers,  meaning  we  would  be  able  to  leverage  this  positive  association  to  tackle  these  perceptions  by  partnering  with  some  of  the  biggest  titles  in  the  market.  

• Lumen  eye  tracking  research  had  shown  that  average  dwell  time  for  electrical  retailers  in  newsprint  is  between  2  –  3seconds.  The  challenge  therefore  was  how  we  used  print  formats  that  delivered  enough  impact  to  provide  a  clear  differentiator  amongst  the  Black  Friday  noise.  

These  insights  led  to  some  clear  media  principles  which  informed  planning:  

• Lead  SOV  across  the  market  • Differentiate  media  buys  to  cut  through  the  noise  • Evolve  Black  Friday  comms  to  cater  for  a  more  educated  audience    • Utilise  multiple  touch  points  to  match  consumer  mind-­‐set  in  the  run  up  to  &  on  

Black  Friday  itself  • Be  innovative  with  our  use  of  format  

 It  was  very  clear  that  we  needed  to  partner  with  newsbrands.  

 

 

   

 

The Plan

The  ambition  for  our  Black  Friday  activity  was  to  deliver  scale  across  key  channels  to  ensure  dominance,  drive  disruption  and  a  sense  of  immediacy.  To  do  this  we  created  the  ‘B lack  Friday  Roadblock’  –  we  wanted  to  own  the  biggest  TV  shows,  the  biggest  newspapers  and  the  biggest  websites  in  the  market.    

We  saw  press  ROI  increase  from  the  previous  year’s  campaign  so  evolved  our  activity  here  even  further  with  takeovers  in  more  titles.  The  inclusion  of  newsbrands,  alongside  channels  we  knew  would  deliver  from  an  ROI  perspective,  created  an  integrated  campaign  that  stood  out  amongst  the  rest.  This  holistic  approach  across  multiple  channels  was  used  to  ensure  that  from  a  consumer’s  point  of  view,  the  campaign  appeared  greater  than  the  sum  of  its  parts.  We  planned  to  deliver  this  though  the  following  comms  framework:  

 Stage  1,  Announce:  

• Through  TV  we  altered  our  standard  end-­‐of-­‐week  phasing  to  run  from  the  Monday,  launching  the  CPCW  ‘Black  Tag  Event’  in  some  high-­‐profile  programming  including  Coronation  Street  (9.7m  individual  viewers)  and  Dispatches  (3m)  

• While  TV  led  the  ‘announce’  phase  of  the  campaign,  it  was  important  for  all  media  to  sew  the  seed  to  their  relevant  audiences,  so  we  selected  2  of  the  most  prominent  titles  in  the  newsbrands  market  to  shout  about  “Black  Tag  is  coming”!  The  Sun  and  the  Times  captured  two  ends  of  our  ABC1  spectrum  maximising  our  reach.  Throughout  the  week  we  built  coverage  with  additional  titles  and  guaranteed  front-­‐of-­‐mind  presence  for  CPCW  

• We  ran  a  combination  of  10  and  30  second  teaser  ads  on  radio  from  the  Monday,  delivering  over  16m  ABC1  Adult  impacts  before  the  day  itself  

• OOH  also  played  a  key  role  in  announcing  our  BF  deals  week,  allowing  us  to  deliver  9.8m  ABC  1  Ad  impacts  before  Black  Friday  through  digital  Underground  and  Rail  formats  

Stage  2,  Dominate:    • Newsbrands  formed  the  focal  point  of  our  ambition  to  ‘own’  Black  Friday.    The  

print  activity  consisted  of  3  unmissable  takeovers,  dominating  three  of  the  highest  circulating  titles  on  Black  Friday  with  just  under  900cms  per  title  in  the  first  third  of  the  book.  This  not  only  ensured  huge  exposure  to  those  readers,  it  meant  we  had  an  enormous  captured  market  over  our  competitors.  Combined  with  a  digital  HPTO  on  Sun.co.uk,  we  were  sure  to  DOMINATE  the  newsbrands  market  and  stand  above  our  competitors.  Through  the  national  print  market  alone,  we  delivered  51%  coverage  of  ABC1  Adults  (an  enormous  35m  impacts)  

• Across  the  Black  Friday  week  we  reached  19m  ABC1  Ads  through  TV  (delivering  the  fourth  highest  number  of  TVRs  across  all  advertisers  in  the  market)  

• Dig ita l  takeovers  across  the  Sun,  YouTube  and  MSN  allowed  us  to  reach  a  third  of  the  UK  population  online  

Stage  3,  Sustain:  • To  ensure  we  had  a  consistent  drumbeat  of  activity  we  maintained  the  weight  of  our  

media  through  to  Cyber  Monday  across  all  channels  • We  maintained  our  presence  in  print  over  the  weekend  across  all  titles  with  large  

fractional  formats  to  ensure  interest  was  sustained  up  until  Cyber  Monday  • Our  newsbrands  activity  across  the  week  provided  the  greatest  SOV  amongst  our  

competitors;  40%  of  CMs  and  double  our  nearest  rival  • Through  display  we  reached  45.3m  unique  users  alone  across  the  week,  driving  a  

161%  uplift  in  sales  YoY  

   

Results  

We  went  into  Black  Friday  with  clear  communications  and  business  objectives;  Lead  SOV  amongst  our  core  competitor  set  and  drive  the  most  sales  in  one  day  the  business  had  ever  seen.  We  delivered  on  both  fronts.    

We  drove  lead  SOV  across  TV  and  press,  establishing  30%  share  across  Black  Friday  week.  This  was  higher  than  all  of  CPCW  key  competitor  brands  including  Argos,  Amazon,  John  Lewis,  AO  and  Very.    

Lumen  research  showed  that  our  Black  Friday  print  activity  was  better  recalled  than  our  standard  ads  by  a  massive  47  percentage  points.  Our  activity  was  in  fact  the  second  most  recalled  across  the  entire  market  according  to  the  same  study  

Millward  Brown  brand  tracking  also  showed  that,  compared  with  the  campaign  last  year,  our  Black  Friday  week  activity  was  more  credible  and  persuasive.  The  formats  we  used  on  Black  Friday  specifically  were  also  recorded  as  being  more  impactful.    

Client V iew  

“The  importance  of  Black  Friday  to  our  business  cannot  be  over  stated.  The  media  strategy  formulated  by  Blue  449  therefore  was  fundamental  to  delivering  on  firm  commercial  targets  and  the  ambition  to  improve  upon  what  was  already  a  record  sales  day  last  year.  We  were  able  to  do  this  and  drive  the  single  biggest  day  of  sales.  Newsbrands  were  an  integral  part  to  our  comms  plan,  allowing  us  to  deliver  mass  scale,  generate  disruption  and  drive  short  term  response  from  consumers.  We  continue  to  see  positive  ROI  figures  from  Newsbrands  to  reinforce  their  effectiveness  as  a  channel  on  plans  and  see  no  reason  why  this  should  change  going  into  Black  Friday  this  year.”  

James  Cheetham,  Head  of  Advertising,  Currys  PC  World